BeiDou navigates its way to global stage

China's location detection tech seeks to hit big time in Belt & Road regions

A recurring theme in the annual Government Work Report, the latest edition of which Premier Li Keqiang presented to the National People's Congress on March 5,has been promotion of high-end manufacturing and the Belt and Road Initiative, and helping Chinese companies to globalize their equipment and homegrown technologies. The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System is a perfect example of that spirit.

The GPS-like navigation system, a product of the Chinese National Space Administration, and managed by the China Satellite Navigation Office, is to accelerate its expansion into economies along the Belt and Road Initiative as China plans to launch six to eight BeiDou satellites this year. BeiDou has made significant progress in terms of accuracy of location detection.